After decades of work, Bergen County Koreans have earned political respect

By JOHN C. ENSSLIN

STAFF WRITER |

The Record

After two decades of persistence, Korean-Americans, one of the fastest-growing minority populations in Bergen County, have become a force commanding the attention of both major political parties.

Palisades Park Deputy Mayor Jason Kim, in glasses, and young volunteers helped Korean-Americans register to vote Sunday during an event at the Han Ah Reum Korean market in Ridgefield.

"As time goes on, it's going to become more and more important," said Bob Yudin, chairman of the Bergen County Republican Organization. Yudin said the Korean-American community is undergoing what so many other ethnic minorities have experienced as they enter the political system.

Adam Silverstein, a spokesman for the Bergen County Democrats, said the community is becoming more important at the county level.

"They are important," he said. "But politics aside, [Korean-Americans] are important to our government and they're important to our community."

Some of these changes are driven by census numbers and some are provoked by adversity, such as the failed state Supreme Court nomination of Closter resident Philip Kwon. And some is the result of just patient, dogged effort, like the voter registration drives that volunteers have staffed every weekend this summer outside a Korean market.

It's been a long road, said Jason Kim, who remembers a very different county when he started organizing registration drives about 20 years ago.

In fact, 20 years ago this month, The Record quoted voter drive organizer Jason Kim as saying, "We don't want our next generation going through the agonies we're going through."

"We don't have any strong, politically minded people advocating our rights," Kim said in August 1992. "Maybe if we start now, we'll soon have a voice in politics."

Kim chuckled when a reporter read the quote to him, partly because he wondered if anyone remembered what he said 20 years ago and partly because of how much things have changed.

"I'm still not satisfied, but I think we went pretty far," Kim said.

This year, though, has seen a coming of age within the Korean-American community at a much more accelerated pace than in the previous two decades. Consider:

* Bergen county began printing ballots in Korean this year after the 2010 census showed Korean-Americans are 6.3 percent of the county's population.

* Korean-Americans formed their own political action committee in anger over a state legislative committee's rejection of the Kwon nomination.

* County Clerk John Hogan will hire a full-time Korean liaison starting today after settling a lawsuit with County Executive Kathleen Donovan over whether she could block the hire. Donovan had countered that Hogan had maxed out his appointments and already has a Korean-speaking employee. Their settlement avoided a trial that had been scheduled to begin today.

* Many legislators now have staffers from the Korean-American community. Assemblywoman Connie Wagner, D-Paramus, hired a part-time Korean-American staffer this year. State Sen. Loretta Weinberg, D-Teaneck, who caught flak for her vote against the Kwon nomination, has one full-time Korean-American staffer and two summer interns.

* County Republicans formed a committee aimed at bringing Korean-Americans into the party, arguing that their reputation for hard work, strong families and independence make them a natural fit for the GOP.

* County Democrats countered that they already have a good relationship with the community, noting that nearly all of the Korean-American municipal council and school board members in the county are Democrats.

* The Bergen County freeholders passed a Aug. 10 resolution urging Congress to memorialize the "comfort women" — females reportedly forced into sexual slavery by Japanese forces before and during World War II.

These signs that Korean- Americans are earning political respect culminates efforts that started with a series of voter registration drives 20 years ago.

Consider Kim's own story: In 1995, he became the first Korean-American elected to a school board in Bergen County. Today he is the deputy mayor of Palisades Park.

Earlier this year he was selected as an at-large delegate to next month's Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C.; however, for personal reasons, he will be unable to attend.

On Sunday afternoon, Kim was where he usually is on weekends: signing up new voters outside the Han Ah Reum Korean market on Broad Avenue in Ridgefield.

Of the 56,773 Korean Bergen County residents counted in the 2010 census, 43,707 are old enough to vote. Of that group, Kim estimates about 20,000 have registered thus far. So the voter drives he started 20 years ago have not let up.

Many of those registered voters live in Fort Lee, Palisades Park and other Eastern Bergen County towns that are traditional Democratic strongholds.

Mindful of the growth of the Korean-American community, the Bergen County Republican Organization recently created a Korean-American Republican Committee aimed at increasing the party's outreach.

Paul W. Lee, a Korean radio broadcaster who heads that effort, sees it as a natural progression in the way any immigrant group assimilates into the larger American culture.

"People are beginning to ask the question; we're a vibrant member of this county, how well do our leaders really know us and are they concerned about the things we're concerned about," he said.

State Sen. Kevin O'Toole, R-Cedar Grove, who despite his Irish name has some Korean ancestry, said he's noticed a change in attitude when it comes to political involvement among Korean-Americans.

"It's been a slow evolution," O'Toole said.

In the 1990s, many Korean-Americans were working six days a week, often at more than one job, to help put their children through college. There was no time left over for things like local politics, he said.

Now that those children have grown up, O'Toole said he sees a growing political awareness among Korean-Americans.

That awareness accelerated in March after a Senate committee voted 7-6 to reject Kwon's bid to become the first Asian-American Supreme Court justice.

O'Toole described the defeat of Kwon nomination as "a searing wound in the soul of the Korean-American people." He said he was grateful that David Ganz and Joan Voss, the two Democrats on the Bergen County Freeholder Board, joined their GOP colleagues in condemning the way the nomination was handled.

Kim said some people are trying to take advantage of the upset over the Kwon nomination, but he urges Korean-Americans to keep the bigger picture in mind.

"It's all part of the political learning process," Kim said.

Both Kim and O'Toole agreed, however, that Korean-Americans could play a decisive role in helping decide which political party holds sway in closely contested races in Bergen County.

Palisades Park Deputy Mayor Jason Kim, in glasses, and young volunteers helped Korean-Americans register to vote Sunday during an event at the Han Ah Reum Korean market in Ridgefield.

"As time goes on, it's going to become more and more important," said Bob Yudin, chairman of the Bergen County Republican Organization. Yudin said the Korean-American community is undergoing what so many other ethnic minorities have experienced as they enter the political system.

Adam Silverstein, a spokesman for the Bergen County Democrats, said the community is becoming more important at the county level.

"They are important," he said. "But politics aside, [Korean-Americans] are important to our government and they're important to our community."

Some of these changes are driven by census numbers and some are provoked by adversity, such as the failed state Supreme Court nomination of Closter resident Philip Kwon. And some is the result of just patient, dogged effort, like the voter registration drives that volunteers have staffed every weekend this summer outside a Korean market.

It's been a long road, said Jason Kim, who remembers a very different county when he started organizing registration drives about 20 years ago.

In fact, 20 years ago this month, The Record quoted voter drive organizer Jason Kim as saying, "We don't want our next generation going through the agonies we're going through."

"We don't have any strong, politically minded people advocating our rights," Kim said in August 1992. "Maybe if we start now, we'll soon have a voice in politics."

Kim chuckled when a reporter read the quote to him, partly because he wondered if anyone remembered what he said 20 years ago and partly because of how much things have changed.

"I'm still not satisfied, but I think we went pretty far," Kim said.

This year, though, has seen a coming of age within the Korean-American community at a much more accelerated pace than in the previous two decades. Consider:

* Bergen county began printing ballots in Korean this year after the 2010 census showed Korean-Americans are 6.3 percent of the county's population.

* Korean-Americans formed their own political action committee in anger over a state legislative committee's rejection of the Kwon nomination.

* County Clerk John Hogan will hire a full-time Korean liaison starting today after settling a lawsuit with County Executive Kathleen Donovan over whether she could block the hire. Donovan had countered that Hogan had maxed out his appointments and already has a Korean-speaking employee. Their settlement avoided a trial that had been scheduled to begin today.

* Many legislators now have staffers from the Korean-American community. Assemblywoman Connie Wagner, D-Paramus, hired a part-time Korean-American staffer this year. State Sen. Loretta Weinberg, D-Teaneck, who caught flak for her vote against the Kwon nomination, has one full-time Korean-American staffer and two summer interns.

* County Republicans formed a committee aimed at bringing Korean-Americans into the party, arguing that their reputation for hard work, strong families and independence make them a natural fit for the GOP.

* County Democrats countered that they already have a good relationship with the community, noting that nearly all of the Korean-American municipal council and school board members in the county are Democrats.

* The Bergen County freeholders passed a Aug. 10 resolution urging Congress to memorialize the "comfort women" — females reportedly forced into sexual slavery by Japanese forces before and during World War II.

These signs that Korean- Americans are earning political respect culminates efforts that started with a series of voter registration drives 20 years ago.

Consider Kim's own story: In 1995, he became the first Korean-American elected to a school board in Bergen County. Today he is the deputy mayor of Palisades Park.

Earlier this year he was selected as an at-large delegate to next month's Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C.; however, for personal reasons, he will be unable to attend.